Wolters Kluwer Health
may email you for journal alerts and information, but is committed
to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without
your express consent. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Background and Objective:

Street food vending continues to expand as a source of affordable food and beneficial economic activity in developing countries. At the same time street foods have been the cause of outbreaks of foodborne diseases worldwide. The objective of this study is to examine the health risks of street food vending and recommend actions to strengthen the role of street food vendors to provide wholesome and safe food.

Results:

Very few street vendors apply some hygiene principles of food protection during preparation, storage and sale. The common hygiene fault practices observed were related to washing hands, utensils and pots in the same water container; drying hands and utensils with the same towel; sneezing, coughing, smoking and spitting near food; not wearing rubber gloves, hair cover and apron; and not removing jewellery while preparing food. Where food stalls are not provided, food was exposed to the sun, dust, wind, smoke, flies and dirty surfaces with a risk of cross contamination. Facilities such as running water, toilets, drainage and garbage disposal were non existent at most of the sites for use by the vendors. There was evidence of bacterial contamination after cooking where few samples examined.

Conclusion:

In order to reduce the burden of foodborne diseases, developing countries should strengthen the role of street food vendors by providing training, guidelines, legislation and infrastructure. There is a need for collaboration among health authorities, municipalities, local government, the community and the associations of street food vendors to achieve this objective.